Hyundai Ioniq 5 N: an electric sports car with an eight-cylinder sound

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 N offers the best of both worlds: It accelerates like an electric car, but turns and sounds like an eight-cylinder.

For BMW, M is the most powerful letter in the world. M for motorsport. It was only popular cars like the M1, M3 and M5 that made the Bavarian automaker what it is: a white and blue group of fun drives that inspire people around the world. For Hyundai, N is the strongest letter. Their current N models (i20, i30) have won a small number of fans – and now the electric Ioniq 5 N is set to win the hearts of all sports car fans, although it has a birth defect: this Hyundai electric car. Can he really make a big impression?

N in Hyundai – that’s what the letter means

Hyundai Ioniq 5 N: N stands for Namyang, Hyundai Motor Group’s development center not far from Seoul. But also to the Nürburgring and there to the legendary Nordschleife – where other internet racers like the Porsche Taycan also have to prove their mettle. There are two N’s in the name of its creator, though only at the end. Alfred Biermann served as head of development at M before moving to the Korean automaker. He worked for six years, then as a technical consultant, he played an important role in creating Hyundai, especially on the sports side. The Ioniq 5 N was his last child. And maybe this birth was also more difficult than his development life.

How do you feel in an electric car? That was the question. The performance of electric cars is not the reason why they haven’t caught on yet. In the electric age, there is a lot of power available: 1,000 hp, 1,000 Newton meters of torque. It’s like going to the butcher. Could it be a little more? Please, please, now. If you put your hand deep inside the black cylinder and – Simsalabim – the technicians have developed a few digital techniques that some petrol heads consider to be at least breaking the taboo, if not outright blasphemy.

How should the Ioniq 5 N sound? Like an eight-cylinder or like a jet fighter?

First: Let there be sound. Three artificial voices are available in the Ioniq 5N. “Ignition”, “Evolution” and “Supersonic”. As the name suggests, the former simulates a real eight-cylinder engine, the latter is a combination of circular sounds and noise from the sky, while the Supersonic is reminiscent of a supersonic aircraft. Every now and then you hear a thud like an overturned tin bucket. Sound barrier. Aha, we would never have thought of that. These sounds are transmitted through eight speakers inside and two outside. One in front, one in back. However, you can’t hear anything outside; And my own listening test did not produce any noticeable sounds when my colleague revved the engine several times during operation. Hell inside, silence outside.

Second, Hyundai engineers have created a virtual dual clutch transmission with mechanical shift paddles. As with the combustion engine, eight gears are available in the so-called E-Shift mode. Two electric machines accelerate as if their power depended on the speed of the combustion engine. The system behind it is so sophisticated that it simulates disturbances in traction when changing gears. There is even a speed limit. The drive is essentially a digital twin of the good old world of combustion engines. And it looks like it too. There it bangs and bangs, there it screams and trumpets from non-existent exhaust pipes. During the descent, the recovery, which is up to 0.6 g, is used in such a way that you think you have to brake the engine. Humanity wants to be deceived, so we deceive them – the ancient Romans already knew that.

Go to the racetrack: thank God there is no breakfast

Site appointment at Castelolli racetrack near Barcelona. First try the launch control. We wisely saved ourselves breakfast, so the 770-meter torque punch in the pit of the stomach had no effect. The Ioniq 5 N normally puts out 609 hp on the road, and thanks to excellent traction control it is very clean. The mark of 100 km / h drops in 3.5 seconds (0-200, 12.1 s). We sit on the gas and then quickly measure the braking power of the oil disc brakes (400 and 360 mm thick). stand up It will then depart the 4,146 km circuit with its seven right and four left turns. Special thing about Castelloli: It rises and falls (9 degrees up, 8 degrees down). We change the E-Shift mode and after a while the feeling of sitting in a simulator on four wheels is gone. Move the gear down cleanly, accelerate to full throttle on top, pull the rocket switch once, pull twice and move up smoothly. Grin Boost is useful in the range. Yes – it has something to do with laughing. Because in ten seconds even beats 650 hp from two electric machines. During the war.